Create a Custom Vase with the Silhouette Alta® Plus

Have you seen the new Silhouette Alta® Plus? One of the best
new features of this 3D printer is the built-in fan that helps with your 3D
prints’ details. In this project I’ll show you how to make a custom textured vase
with the Silhouette 3D™ software’s lithophane feature!

This tutorial uses Silhouette Studio® Business Edition to create
the pattern to save as a JPG, but if you do not have Business Edition then you
can use other JPG designs and photo-editing software to create the correct size
of JPG file.

Note: Make sure to select “Save Selection” and not simply “Save As,” or this won’t work correctly.

6. Give the file a name and change the save as type to JPEG. Click OK.

7. A pop-up will appear, asking you to enter some export information. You can leave everything as-is and save as 150 dots per inch.

Note: In my experimentation I did not see much difference between 150 dpi and 300 dpi for a 3D print or in the print time, but you are welcome to change the resolution if you want.

8. If you do not have Silhouette Studio® Business Edition but do have digital JPG patterns you want to try, you can use basic photo-editing software to crop a JPG to 9 inches by 5 inches and save as 150–300 dpi/ppi.

Step Two: Create Lithophane

1. In Silhouette 3D™, open the design you saved as a JPEG sized 9 inches by 5 inches.

2. Choose to import the image as a Lithophane Tube, when prompted.

3. It will open with the pattern now as a cylindrical design.

4. The Alta Plus cannot print taller than 5 inches, so you will need to resize this. I wanted my vase to be quite a bit daintier, so I locked the dimension ratio and input 2.25 inches for the width.

Note: This will not create a waterproof vase; my vase is going to hold paper flowers.

Step Three: Print with Alta Plus

1. To print the vase, go to the 3D Print tab and wait for it to slice the model (which means prepare the layers of the model for printing).

4. When everything is ready, click Print to send the design to print. This will take several hours.

Note: For the Alta Plus, you can leave the door closed as
it has its own cooling fan at the print head. If you are using an original
Alta, you may wish to run a small fan at the open door.

Step Four: Remove and Fill with Flowers

1. Once the print has finished and cooled for a few minutes, carefully pry the print away from the print bed. Resizing this design smaller makes it pretty delicate.

2. Peel away the thin skirt, if any, at the base.

3. Depending on the weight of your flowers or whatever you put inside, you may need to place a circle of cardstock inside at the bottom to cover the hole and add some kind of weight to keep it from tipping.

4. Add your flowers, and enjoy!

Alternatives:

This design created a slender vase, but you may want to use
this same technique to create a variety of vases and planters. It all depends
on how you crop it and resize before printing.

These patterns were all saved as 9 inches wide, but they are
(from left to right) 2 inches high, 3 inches high, 4 inches high, and 5 inches
high upon saving. As you can see, you can create quite a variety!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, and I’d love to see what fun planters and vases you make with this lithophane technique!

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5 Comments

very pretty, Is there no Bottom to this vase? As you said TUBE?
I am having a hard time finding software to make other objects with the Alta I received for Christmas. Can you say if there are any other software apps-to make designs for ALTA?

Hi Linda. There is a large hole at the bottom of this “tube” lithophane, but it does have a base/bottom. As I mention in step 4.3, you can place a circle of cardstock at the bottom to cover the hole and then fill it with some kind of weight before adding flowers.

You can open any .STL or .OBJ file type in Silhouette 3D software, so you have access to all sorts of pre-made 3D designs from websites like Thingaverse.com, etc. (with a limit in size to fit the 5″ print area). Any software that can create an .STL or .OBJ file is an option for designing in 3D, but you have to print to the Alta from Silhouette 3D. I hope that makes sense!